1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data storage devices, and in particular, relates to FLASH memory control methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flash memory is a general non-volatile storage device that is electrically erased and programmed. A NAND Flash, for example, is primarily used in memory cards, USB flash devices, solid-state drives, eMMCs (embedded MultiMediaCards), and so on. Generally, a storage array of a Flash memory (e.g. a NAND Flash) comprises a plurality of blocks. Each block comprises a plurality of pages. To release a block as a spare block, all pages of the entire block have to be erased at once.
For data security, some blocks of a FLASH memory are allocated to be replay-protected memory blocks (abbreviated to RPMBs). In comparison with the other blocks, the RPMBs are managed in a higher security level. Data management of the RPMBs is especially important.